I painted this chair yesterday.

I found this chair 9 months ago for $35 at a Salvation Army.  I had big plans to make it all cute but then life got in the way and the idea of taking it apart to paint and or recover was too daunting so I let it sit in our bedroom. I didn’t know what I wanted the chair to look like when it was done, and I didn’t care to try to figure it out.  Yes, I know that someone likes it the way it is, I liked it too but I wanted something different– and ha ha, it’s  my chair and I can destroy it however I see fit.

Well, I did something this weekend that changed my attitude towards this chair.  I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. But, When I got home, I looked around my house to see who my first victim could be.  And I found this poor neglected chair. I immediately popped out the bottom cushion.  And after scratching my head and posting this photo on twitter I got the help I needed for the back cushion…

Oh the QUEENS of furniture came to my rescue.   There were others as well but I could only snapshot 4 in a row.  Basically, they all said the same thing, that back part is a BEAR to get out.  And since I wasn’t recovering the chair, just painting it, I decided to leave the back in and paint the chair just like that. I was in the mode of getting this chair done, NOTHING was going to stop me.

Lucky for me, the goal was not perfection.  The goal was pure imperfection.  It’s so much easier to paint something imperfectly.  I slapped a few coats of the first white paint I found {stop the world, call the paint police, I used eggshell wall paint}.  I was too impatient to wait for it to dry so then I grabbed my trusty sanding sponge block thing whateverthosethingsarecalled and went to town.  The more I sanded off, the better it looked.

I’m so happy with the results.  Why didn’t I do this months ago?  It took an HOUR?!  One measely HOUR.  What was holding me back?

Motivation and Inspiration were holding me back.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, and I wasn’t excited about doing it.

The two most important things when you are doing a project are motivation and inspiration.  Because when you are motivated and inspired, you will find a way to make it happen.  You get creative, you have what it takes, you believe in yourself, it’s worth the trouble.  You could have all the {insert appropriate tools that Home Depot says you need for any particular project} ready to go, but without motivation and it’s more fun and creative sister, inspiration, you’ll never get the job done.  Don’t underestimate the power of motivation and inspiration.  And don’t forget to allow yourself to have the time to get inspired and motivated.

What has motivated and or inspired you to get a project done?

Can you guess what inspired me this weekend?